


Apricity

by tyrianTyrant



Series: Tyrian's FFVII Fics [1]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Humor, Snow, no beta we die like zack, zack and aerith talk about going to gongaga one day to see the snow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:36:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28312467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tyrianTyrant/pseuds/tyrianTyrant
Summary: Apricity - the warmth of the sun in winterZack finds out that Aerith has never seen the snow
Relationships: Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough
Series: Tyrian's FFVII Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2078064
Comments: 7
Kudos: 16





	Apricity

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sciencemyfiction](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sciencemyfiction/gifts).



> hello i've finished ffvii and crisis core and now it's time for me to write fanfiction  
> this one's dedicated to Dev, who enabled me and also is just an all-round great person

“I just realised,” Zack straightened up, slapping his knee in astonishment. “You guys don’t get snow down here!”

Aerith looked up, confusion written all over her face. “No, not really, why?”

It was springtime, when the flowers in the church were just starting to push their way back through the soil. They were tiny things at this point, vulnerable to pests and the occasional wayward bird that’d managed to slip through the cracks of the steel sky. Sometimes it would rain, and rain hard, to the point where the constant dripping turned into a flood, and it was all she could do to keep her delicate flowers from drowning.

Snowmelt tended to do that, in the early days of spring. Her mother would always be so upset when she’d come home with her boots and the ends of her dress covered in mud.

“Really? None?” Zack was staring at her, shock painted all over his face as she grinned, shaking her head.

“The closest we get down here’s a sludge that drips from some of the larger cracks. But it’s disgusting, and it just melts before it hits the ground. There’s icicles too, which are pretty cool! But you have to be careful, sometimes they come loose.”

If someone had told her that Zack was a puppy on his rear legs trying to be a human, Aerith wouldn’t have doubted them, especially not after knowing him for so long. And right now was no exception.

The way he grinned, it showed up in his eyes first, the way they widened and lit up and crinkled at the ends before he burst into a toothy smile, full of a bouncy energy to _go do something_ , and _make things happen_!

She bit back the urge to ruffle his hair with her dirty hands. “You’ve got an idea, don’t you?”

“Here’s an idea- Hey!” He flicked at her nose, sticking his tongue out at her before continuing. “When I get a vacation, I’m going to take you to Gongaga, and you’re going to see some real snow.”

“Hm…” Aerith hummed softly, batting the idea around in her mind as her eyes lulled shut, drinking in the moment around her.

The loamy soil between her fingers.

The warmth of the streaks of sunlight that’d made their way past the steel sky. 

Zack’s presence, warm and solid in a way she could feel but never describe.

“Maybe.”

“You’d love it. It’s all white, and cold, and when it first comes down…” Zack let out a short sigh. “It’s like the world’s fallen asleep.”

“Until you go plowing through it, of course.”

“Well, that’s pretty much a given.” He was grinning wider now, she could tell. “I always wake up extra early so I can step in the snow first.”

“You? Waking up early? Didn’t Sephiroth have to pour a bucket of cold water on you the last time you had to wake up early for a mission?” Aerith couldn’t help but crack a smile, which quickly turned into a laugh at Zack’s sound of indignation.

“It was _ice cold_ ! There were _ice cubes_!” He sputtered, looking for words. “And they hurt! And then he had the gall to say-”

“‘ _At least you won’t have to waste time taking a shower now, Fair. But I do suggest you get changed.’_ ” Aerith finished the story with a pretty good mimicry of Zack’s Sephiroth voice, if she did say so herself.

“Exactly- Hey!” He shoved her shoulder lightly, grumbling as she laughed harder, before laughing himself. “The way he stood over me, with his eyes glowing and his expression, I thought he was going to run me through with his sword for sleeping in. I was terrified!”

“Maybe if you didn’t spend so much time in those sims so late at night, you wouldn’t be sleeping in so often.” Aerith reminded him, opening her eyes again as she slipped back into her Sephiroth voice. “‘ _Should I be checking what you’re looking at?_ ’”

“Don’t even joke about that. I’d rather take a bullet before letting Sephiroth see my search history.” Zack shot her a look, before shaking his head. “Plus, I wouldn’t be using a sim in Gongaga. You’d love it there, I think.”

“Really?” Aerith gave up on trying to focus on weeding the garden and dusted off her hands, before nesting them in her lap and cocking her head. “Tell me about it.”

Zack moved his legs so he was sitting cross-legged, making sure not to trample any of the young plants around them, and planted his elbow into his knee, leaning his head into his hand. “It’s really out of the way, pretty much the only thing there’s the mako reactor. We’ve got a saying in backwater places like it, where there’s a reactor, there’s usually not much else, and… It’s no exception. But!” He held up his hand, all five of his fingers outstretched. “Five reasons you should come to Gongaga. And you know what? I'm going to give you one for every season. Gongaga's beautiful all year, and my offer stands all year.”

“One.” He put a finger down. “There’s a pear tree right outside of our neighbour’s house, and it’s huge! If you climb to the top, you can see all of Gongaga, and it’s got the best pears you’ve ever had, if you come at the end of summer. I don’t recommend climbing it when it’s flowering though, because you’ll sneeze, and it’s a long fall down.”

“Did you break something?” There was a knowing twinkle in her eye.

“My arm. Two!” Another finger went down. “There’s a field right outside town, and in the spring, there’s always deer who like to go that way. They’re not that scared of us, we make a point of not hunting them in the field, and we get to see their little babies! Have you ever seen a baby deer, Aerith?”

“Nope! I’ve never seen an adult deer either, before you ask, but I know what a deer is, I’ve seen them in books, and they’re adorable.”

Zack beamed. “Well, add that one to your list of wishes, because you’ll definitely love them even more in person. Three, there’s a river near us, and when it’s fall time, there’s so much fish. As in, I could reach into the river and just grab a fish, there’s so many. It does attract bears though.”

“I guess you’ve got to be… _beary_ careful, then?”

It took a second for her joke to hit, but when it did, the reaction was instantaneous. Zack put his face in his hands and groaned, loud enough to echo off the walls of the church, though it did nothing to dampen her cheesy grin. “You.” He pointed at her. “Are terrible.”

“Really?”

“Oh no-” Zack realised his mistake far too late.

“Because I thought I was Aerith.”

Zack let out another groan to rival the first one, stretching it out for dramatic effect. “NUMBER FOUR-” He jammed his fourth finger down, sighing, before continuing. “The snow is absolutely beautiful.”

“You’ve already said that.”

“Yeah, but I’m saying it again. It’s beautiful. The pear tree looks like-” Zack took a sharp inhale. “An angel. The stream freezes over too, not thick enough to stand on, but it’s still really pretty. And the clearing… It’s so quiet and bright. When I was younger, I thought that that’s what the entrance to Heaven looked like. A huge white field of snow.”

The silence lingered in the air, pristine and crisp in a way that Aerith didn’t want to break.

Instead, she just stared at Zack, who looked like he was in the process of swallowing rocks, or maybe his anxiety.

“And my fifth reason.” He was holding up only his pointer finger now, and brought it between them. “My fifth reason is because I want you to come with me.”

He looked so earnest and hesitant at the same time, so beautifully honest and yet so nervous.

“Zack, I-”

His expression crumpled as he squeezed his eyes shut. “Shit, am I being too forward? I know the sky terrifies you, so we’ll have to work slowly. I don’t expect you to come to Gongaga off the bat. If you want to, that is.”

“Zack-”

“And I mean, you don’t have to come just because I said so! But you won’t be alone, my parents want to meet you too. My mom makes the best pie on the entire planet, and she’s probably going to load you up with the best Gongagan food you’ll ever have in your life, but she can always just _send_ -”

“Zack!” Aerith grabbed his pointer finger, smiling as he shut up. “That’s all you had to say.”

“What, my mom’s cooking?” A confused look flashed across his face.

“No.” She held up his pointer finger, slightly uncurling her fingers.

( _God_ , she loved him.)

“All you had to say was that you want me to come with you.”

  
  



End file.
